With higher levels of integrated circuits on semiconductor chips and the need for faster transistors in these circuits, the FET transistor in production today, such as a MOSFET, is fabricated with an effective channel length of about 0.5.mu.. To increase the speed of the transistor even faster, the channel length of the FET must be reduced below 0.25.mu.. This dimension approaches the limits of optical lithography and semiconductor manufactures are resorting to techniques like phase shift lithography, which require expensive masks but permit optical lithography to achieve these small line widths. Semiconductor manufacturers also are resorting to X-ray lithography which is extremely costly from an exposure equipment and mask making standpoint. Although electron beam is another alternative, its throughput is extremely slow when it is used in a direct write mode.